About the Garmin Vivosmart HR Activity Tracker

The sleek band is comfortable to wear all day and the always-on display shows your stats, even in the sunlight your able to read your information

Reminds you to stay active with the move bar and vibration alert

Able to receive calls, text, email, calendar and social media alerts
Control your music and your VIRB camera (sold separately)

Activity tracker with Elevate wrist heart rate technology

With Elevate heart rate technology, the Garmin Vivosmart HR measures your heart on your wrist, gauging your efforts without the need of a chest strap heart rate monitor that is sold separately and cost you more money.

With the built-in heart rate monitor, now you can increase the intensity of your workout without the worry of chest straps in the way causing you some delays if it slides down or is too tight.

The built in heart rate monitor is a big plus in my book and is able to track your heart rate 24/7. The data is presented in the Garmin’s mobile connect app.

The battery life on the Vivosmart HR can last up to 5 days with the continuous heart rate tracking which is not bad at all. You don’t have to worry about connecting it to the charger every 2-3 days.

Garmin Connect

Garmin Connect is the free online community where people on the move can save, plan and share their activities. It is available for both Android and iOS.

Know your stats from the day before and beat things like your step count or epic run. Get digital insights tailored to your stat habits, like cues when you need to start moving and healthy tips. Connect with your friends and challenge them. It’s available for desktop and compatible devices.

The ability to receive notifications on your fitness tracker

The Garmin Vivosmart is able to receive basically any notification your phone gets, like text, calls, emails, calendar and other alerts right from your wrist as long as it’s paired with your phone.

The big plus with this feature is you won’t ever miss an important thing anymore, like an important call or email from work. You will know whats going on all from your wrist.

Although you can’t alter what types of notifications you receive, the great thing is at least you get them.

Tracking your sleep

The Vivosmart is able to track either your deep sleep or light sleep. When you set up the watch for sleep activity, you enter in your regular sleeping and waking up times which gives the watch a little guidance of the hours to leave you alone, but each night is measured as it comes.

You don’t have to worry about setting up your watch every night to sleep mode like other activity trackers because the Vivosmart automatically detects when you are sleeping and when you wake up.

No extra things to mess with. When sleeping, the watch automatically goes into “do not disturb mode” so you can joy every bit of time to sleep. Amazing how it does that now. I have the Fitbit Blaze and I had to download another app just to track my sleep and it killed my battery quick.

When you wake up out of your slumber, you can check your stats out on the Connect App. On the app you can see the breakdown of last nights sleep that will show you the total duration of sleep as well as the levels of deep or light sleep.

With the Garmin Connect App your also able to see the traces of your movement throughout the night so you can establish if you need to tie yourself down so you don’t roll off.

Activity Tracking

With the Vivosmart, your able to swipe through the screen and you’ll get updates on your steps against your goal, flights of stairs climbed, active minutes for the week, calories burned, distance walked in the day and your current heart rate.

Almost like the Fitbit Charge HR, the Garmin Vivosmart HR keeps tabs on your heart rate throughout the day and displays your resting heart rate on the watch.

When going for a workout, all it takes is a push of a button on the watch and you can choose start a tracking mode. The watch will start tracking, but remember the watch doesn’t have a GPS built in so it won’t be exact when trying to calculate your distance, but it also won’t be too far off.

When it comes to calculating your steps, the Vivosmart is pretty spot on when compared to other watches like the Fitbit Blaze.

Is the Vivosmart HR waterproof?

The Vivosmart HR is rated 5 ATM so that means you can take it swimming with you in the pool. You can shower with it but just don’t take it diving or anything like that.

I use mine to the beach a lot and get it submerged for a good amount of time and the watch is perfectly fine. There are no issues with it up to this day (knock on wood).

Pros

Price is great for an activity tracker that has a built in heart rate monitor

Waterproof

Able to receive notifications

Great for activity tracking

Sleek on the wrist

Battery Life is great lasting for up to 5 days before a charge

The band on the watch itself is great and doesn’t get loose when working out

Readable screen that isn’t too small like some other trackers out there

Cons

Not able to alter what type of notifications you receive

Doesn’t have GPS to get accurate distance on runs, etc.

Overall take on the Garmin Vivosmart HR

I really like the Garmin Vivosmart HR because it does a lot of great things for a very good price. Some of the biggest things that caught my attention was that it is waterproof and it has a built in heart rate monitor.

Some other Garmin trackers require separate heart rate monitors but I’m glad they changed it up for the Vivosmart HR. I really don’t like the idea of spending extra money for a heart rate monitor.

Another great thing is being able to receive notifications from your watch. You can’t alter what types of notifications you receive, but remember it isn’t a smart watch like the Samsung Gear S2. It is a fitness tracker and I say that it is defiantly worth the money being able to give you a little of the best of both worlds.

I really hope this review has helped answer some of the questions you may of had about the Garmin Vivosmart HR. If I didn’t answer your question, please feel free to leave it below and I will get back to you with an answer.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

Great review of the vivosmart. I see people wearing these types of devices all the time and i’ve always wondered about them. I am kind of surprised that it doesn’t have a GPS though. I suppose that sort of makes sense since it isn’t necessarily a smart watch, but I would still kind of expect it even for the sole purpose of tracking runs. Thanks for the review!

Great info. I have been looking into getting a fitness band as I am getting a little older and need to track what’s going, especially changes. Also with the sleep monitor being seamless, that will definitely play a part in the band I get. Really appreciate it, your review is one of the most complete I have seen.

Great review of the Garmin. Vivosmart HR, I agree, for the price it does have a lot of functionality. I especially like the fact that it is waterproof as with all electronics, that seem to be the bane of my existence! It does seem a bit disappointing though that it doesn;t have GPS to track runs, but again, at this price point, I think the added heart rate monitor makes up for that. I will definitely be taking a look at them.

Thank you Sue Lee for stopping by and giving me some feedback on the Vivosmart. It really is a great watch at a great price. If you nave any questions at all on the watch please feel free to ask. Have a good one.

I have a UP3 now. The problem with this unit is that it will not connect to my Galaxy S5 phone. It will connect to my Galaxy Note 5, this is my sons device. You do not list or have a link to the devices that will connect with. A link would be helpful.

I know that my UP3 will give you some suggestions from a virtual coach on what to eat or how you should exercise, does the Vivosmart have a coach to help you with your motivation.

This is a pretty nice fitness/smart watch. Very well explained review about this watch. At first I only knew garmin as a car navigator. I didn’t know they also do smart watches. This watch is pretty cool since it can track your activity and also can get notifications from your phones. I really like how you put the pros and cons on the last part of your article. I think I’m gonna buy this one soon. Thank you for this review.